All right, one more mighty thanks to legend-of-sora for letting me base this fic off her comic strip!

It's been an adventure, and I'm so glad that I was able to share it with all of my lovely readers and fellow ML fans. I hope this is a nice ending to a relatively sweet story. It was a new experience for me, writing about my two fave dorks, but I enjoyed it and it was good practice for future ML fanfics if I were to ever write more.

Anyway, shall we get to it? I know I've kept you waiting for quite a while…

That's Perfectly All Right

"Marinette!" Adrien tried, his hands fisting at his sides. "Please, listen to me—" The boy broke off and jumped to one side of the alleyway as those strings shot at him again. He tucked and rolled, but the alley was small. As he was coming out of his roll, he very narrowly avoided flying face-first into the brick wall. He managed to turn just in time, but his shoulder still collided with the unforgiving structure. Pain shot through his arm and into his chest.

Adrien struggled to his feet, blinking the rain from his eyes and clutching his shoulder. Marionette had advanced further into the alley, her gaze locked on him. He took a wobbly step toward her.

Marionette froze a moment, a thought flitting through her mind, Reckless.

"Marinette, please," Adrien tried again, his voice laced with pain this time. "I didn't know, I swear. I didn't know…"

The moment passed, Marionette's eyes flickered to meet Adrien's eyes.

"Liar!" She lifted her arms again and the blond had a split-second to react, leaping to his left to get away from the strings. He wasn't fast enough, though. One of them caught his ankle and he hit the ground hard, his teeth snapping together (it was a miracle he didn't bite his tongue off). The air was knocked from his lungs momentarily, his vision hazy with pain. The cold from the rain wasn't helping, soaking him to the bone, amplifying all the aches.

The weight of the string was gone just as fast as it had appeared. Adrien capitalized on this moment to the best of his ability, pulling away and struggling to get to his feet again, only managing to make it to his hands and knees, one arm wrapped around his middle.

At this rate, he was fighting a losing battle. He was surprised she hadn't attacked him again. Looking to his right, he realized why, though. Marionette was speaking with Hawkmoth.

"You care so much for this boy?" she ground out. "Why?"

Hawkmoth was silent for a while. There wasn't a change he'd ever reveal his identity to a civilian. That could be a disaster. At the same time, his emotions were getting in the way. He couldn't bear it if anything happened to Adrien. Not after he'd lost his wife.

That's none of your concern, he finally answered with a steely coolness he used when doing business. I gave you these powers, I can take them away just as easily. Remember that.

"Going back on your word? You didn't strike me as the type," Marionette quipped back.

Hawkmoth was silent again.

If you must, he finally said, resigning himself. At least avoid the face, he's got a photoshoot tomorrow, you know how it is.

Marionette smiled and chuckled darkly as the purple butterfly faded around her eyes. She focused back in on the alley, only to find it deserted.

"A game of hide-and-seek?" she called playfully. "How exciting!" She walked further into the alley, her head jerking around as she searched. "Only, it would seem the roles have been reversed. You're no longer the cat."

Adrien listened hard for Marionette's footsteps through the sound of the pattering rain, currently huddled behind a part of the wall that jutted out, providing just enough cover. He was shivering so hard now he could hardly breathe. It was all he could do to keep his teeth from chattering. His thought process was if he could just get close enough to her, maybe he could get her to listen to him, even if it was for a second, convince her that he really hadn't know she was Ladybug until just a few moments ago.

Plagg had appeared as soon as Adrien had hid, trying to quietly convince his stubborn charge to transform.

"She knows who you are, it's in your best interest to transform," the black kwami urged in a whisper. "You're cold and tired, you won't last long. At least as Chat Noir you've got a better fighting chance."

Adrien looked at his kwami with fierce green eyes despite the cold, despite the pain. "No, I'm n-n-not g-g-g-going to. It would c-c-c-come off as ins-s-s-sinc-c-cere."

Marionette's voice rang through the alley, sending a chill down Adrien's spine, "You're the mouse."

Something was off. Adrien jumped out into the alley again just as Marionette's strings struck the place he was hiding behind, turning a good chuck of it into rubble.

Adrien had barely enough time to regroup before the strings were coming at him again. He narrowly avoided them, but instead of leaping away, he charged toward Marionette with one last surge of energy.

"Marinette, I s-s-s-wear I didn't kn-kn-know," he yelled, dodging her strings again as he kept advancing. "You've g-g-got to b-believe me! Please, t-t-trust me!"

He was only a few feet from her now.

But just as he got to her, she flew up, almost like she'd been yanked up by invisible strings in the sky, and flew backward several meters, causing the blond to stop where he was.

Adrien's knees almost gave out.

Marionette paused, looking at the boy with conflicted eyes. She was still hurting, but…his words. It was entirely possible he really hadn't known…but the longer she looked, the more the anger bubbled up inside her.

No, no, that was wrong. She wasn't angry, necessarily. She was hurt.

Marionette raised her arms, shooting out her strings once again. Adrien tried to dodge, but he was too slow. Cold, fatigue, aches and pains stopped him from being able to avoid them this time. One string caught his wrist and it was all over. More strings lashed onto his arms and legs, immobilizing him. His eyes darted from all the strings back up to Marionette, who was slowly approached him now. For the first time today, he felt a thrill of fear rush through him.

She could never get herself to hurt him. She cared far too much for him. And that's why it hurt so much.

"M-M-Marin-n-nette, p-p-please—" Adrien broke off, but not of his own accord. Marionette had silenced him with a wave of her hand. He glanced at his ring, thinking if there was a time to transform now would probably be it—would it still work if he could only think it?

He looked back at Marionette. If Hawkmoth was watching, that meant he'd know who Chat Noir was. And Adrien wasn't about to let that happen. He couldn't, under any circumstance let Hawkmoth get his hands on his Miraculous.

Marionette came closer and closer at an agonizing pace. Adrien couldn't just let her do whatever it was she was planning. He needed to act, to do something, to try to get through to her!

He took a deep breath and summoning the last of his strength he started to pull at his binds. They pressed into his arms and legs painfully, like a dozen tiny, molten hot knifes were being pressed into his skin. Gritting his teeth, he continued to pull, finally managing to break his right arm free.

Marionette paused, her eyes going wide his shock and horror. Red splashed against the street, coloring the rainy, grey afternoon—vibrant red. Another jerk and Adrien's right leg came free. The tearing of Adrien's jeans tore through the sound of the rain. More red colored the street, colored Marionette's vision. It soaked into the cloth of the boy's pants. The strings on Adrien's left side fell away and Adrien collapsed to one knee, struggling to keep upright. His head bowed and shoulders hunched an indicator of how well he was managing. His whole frame shook, but it could've been from pain, fatigue, or the cold, Marionette wasn't sure.

She was sure of one thing: She never meant to hurt him. Ever.

In fact, he was shaking because of all three things: pain, exhaustion, and the cold. The cuts the strings had given him stung more than he thought they should, sapping his energy. Of course, not having experienced a normal childhood meant also missing out on cuts, scrapes, and the occasional broken bone, so that also could've been why they seemed to hurt so much.

Or maybe it wasn't even the cuts at all.

His voice was quiet when he spoke, but Marionette didn't have trouble catching it because the rain had gone silent, almost as if it had stopped, but she could feel it. It was still definitely raining, she had somehow…blocked it out. All she heard now was Adrien's soft voice, reminding her of why she'd fallen for him in the first place.

"I've n-n-never h-had a g-g-girlfriend," he said, head still bowed, still on one knee. Marionette jolted, and stumbled back. Those words…why did they sound so familiar? Why did they conjure up…?

Adrien lifted his head and met her eyes, a small smile gracing his features despite the pain he was in. "It's all s-s-ort of…n-new to me."

Thunder rumbled in the distance and Marinette started, the sound of the rain coming back full force. She blinked rapily as it all came rushing through her: the hurt, the pain, the betrayal, the self-loathing, the horror at what she'd done.

Tears filled her eyes and she quickly buried her face in her hands, her knees buckling.

"Marinette!" Adrien exclaimed, struggling to get to his feet.

"I just…" she sobbed. "I just…I'm not—" She shook her head as Adrien stumbled toward her. "I'm not brave. Or courageous. I'm not strong and fearless. I only feel that way as Ladybug because…she saves people. She's brave. She's courageous. She's strong and fearless." Marinette sunk lower to the ground as she continued. "I just…couldn't fathom why you'd fall in love with me, Marinette," the girl continued. "I'm a klutz who can't even form a single sentence around you, and who is always making a fool of herself in front of everyone."

Adrien finally got to her. He collapsed beside her, but pulled her into his arms.

"I'm s-so s-sorry, M-M-Marinette," he choked, holding her closer to him. "I d-didn't know…I-I didn't kn-know…"

With a shaking hand, Adrien reached up and yanked the choker off of Marionette's neck. It broke easily in his fist. The akuma fluttered out. Adrien let out a breath. It was over. It was finally over.

The rain even lessoned into a drizzle instead of downpour.

When Adrien looked back down, Marionette had reverted back to Marinette.

The girl pulled her hands away from her face and looked around, wondering why there were tears running down her cheeks, why she was soaking wet, why she was in an alley, why Adrien was currently holding her—

Adrien!

She looked up at him, it coming rushing back to her. Specific details were fuzzy, but she remembered the hurt, she remembered the pain. She also remembered, near the end—he hadn't known. He hadn't known she was Ladybug. He'd really fallen for her.

The boy in question looked down at her with a gentle smile, but his breathing was labored and his skin was feverish. He was also shaking so hard, she was afraid he was going to just…fall apart.

Marinette opened her mouth to say something when she spotted the red on his arm and leg. He was bleeding! He was bleeding…because of her!

She tried to get out of his embrace, a new wave of tears filling her eyes.

"Get away from me!" she yelled, jerked away.

Adrien held fast, despite what he'd just gone through.

"M-M-Marinette, what—I d-d-don't unders-s-stand." He sounded hurt, heartbroken.

Marinette met his eyes, still trying to get out of arms, which had encircled around her waist.

She lifted a shaking hand to his bleeding arm.

"I hurt you," she whispered, her tears falling. "I hurt you. I'm dangerous! Don't come near me! I don't want to hurt you again!"

"N-N-No, Marin-nette," Adrien objected, struggling to keep his hold on her. He wasn't going to let her get away from him this time. If he'd just followed her when she'd found out he was Chat Noir, they could've avoided all this. He'd seen how upset she'd been, but hadn't followed her, he'd let her get away.

Now, Marinette was still clearly hurting and confused. Adrien was determined to make things right again.

Adrien's vision was momentarily blocked by a whirlwind of glowing pink, red, and black. Warmth flooded through his body, chasing away the cold of the rain. Some of his strength returned. The cuts on his arms vanished.

When he could see again, the first thing he saw was Marinette's kawmi, Tikki. She looked wiped and started to fall from where she'd been floating. Adrien instantly moved to catch her, but Plagg appeared and helped gently lower Tikki to the ground. Adrien couldn't help but smile at the two. It seemed they cared for each other just as much as he and Marinette cared for each other.

Adrien turned his attention back to Marinette, who had stopped struggling. Her gaze was on the ground, her eyes filled with unshed tears.

"Marinette," Adrien said gently, glad he could finally talk without stuttering. He caressed her cheek and turned her head so she was looking at him. "I'm fine." He unwound his arm from her waist and showed her. Marinette's lower lip trembled right before she threw her arms around Adrien's neck and started crying.

"I'm so sorry," she sobbed.

Adrien held her to him, gently rubbing her back, his other arm wrapped tightly around her waist.

"I want you know," the boy started softly, as the dark-haired girl continued to cry, "that you were always brave, and courageous, and strong long before you became Ladybug. You've always had it in you. It's always been a part of who you are. You don't have to be fearless. What makes you brave is the fact that you are afraid, but you fight anyway. Sometimes we just need a little coaxing." Marinette's tears slowly subsided, as did her sobs. Adrien continued, "And you know what: that's perfectly all right."

The boy pulled back so he could look at her. "And you know what else?"

Marinette looked back at him with her gorgeous blue eyes. She shook her head nearly imperceptibly.

"I love you, Marinette."

Marinette groaned, her head pounding. Even on the lowest light setting, the light from her phone screen was killing her, but she refused to turn it off. She curled in on herself and pulled her blankets over her head, but made sure to leave a small hole she could look through at her phone, which was propped up against her pillow currently.

"Does the world always seem to be spinning when you're sick?" Adrien asked squeezing his eyes shut from the other end of the video call. He was also in bed, much like Marinette, curled up. Thought he was holding a pillow against his head, each end pressed against his ears.

Marinette let out a wheezy, little laugh, which only caused her to start coughing. She groaned again once the fit had passed.

"You okay?" Adrien asked before reaching for a tissue and blowing his nose.

"Yeah, I'm all right," she replied, her nose just as stuffed as Adrien's sounded. "I only get the spinning when I try and stand up. Have you seriously never gotten sick before?"

"Nothing as serious as this," the boy said. "My father's very careful about that. Well…usually." Adrien chuckled. "It's not so bad. I did say I wanted the whole teenage experience."

Marinette snorted and rolled her eyes, which didn't help her pounding head. She groaned again, pressing her palms to her temples.

"Are you sure you want to keep talking?" Adrien asked, noticing her discomfort.

"I need someone to commiserate with me in my misery," Marinette explained, clearing her throat, only to go into another coughing fit. "Besides, Alya isn't helping. She's like a second mom." Marinette did her best Alya impression, which sounded off because of her sore throat and stuffed nose. "That's what you get for sitting out in the rain and cold."

"So she's not upset about…what happened?"

"I think she's still trying to work through it, but I explained why I'd said what I said and she seemed to understand." One of the only things Marinette did remember. It was clearer than her other memories, which is to say the other memories were virtually nonexistent, but it was all still very fuzzy. She didn't like thinking about it because it only gave her a headache. Well, right now, worsened her headache.

Marinette and Adrien continued to talk about everything under the sun, waiting for the medicine their parents had given them to kick in. It was agreed they could skip patrols for tonight. They were much too sick to be going out. Hopefully they'd be well enough to go tomorrow night. Paris should be okay until then. (With their luck, who really knew?)

Adrien's meds kicked in first, his eyelids growing heavier and heavier. He fought to keep them open, enjoying their conversation, their time together, but eventually couldn't fight it anymore. Marinette smiled at the scene of Adrien asleep, peaceful. She reached forward her fingertips just barely brushing the surface of the screen and smiled.

"I love you, too, Adrien," she whispered before pulling her hand back, content with just watching the blond sleep.

The girl fell asleep soon after.

Marinette and Adrien weren't the only ones taking advantage of video calls. Tikki and Plagg appeared and struck up a conversation glad they didn't have to have short, secret conversations anymore. They'd never admit it to each other—well, maybe Plagg wouldn't, at least—but they missed being able to talk to each other. When Adrien started coming over to Marinette's more frequently, they'd gotten a change to hang out, but they always had to be careful. Now, there was no such worry.

"They're hopeless," Plagg commented as their Miraculous holders continued to softly snore behind their respective kwamis.

Tikki snorted. "They're still kids. They'll figure it out."

"Doubtful."

"You're hopeless."

"Rude." Plagg paused. "This kid is so backward. He wants to go to school. He wants to get sick. Just when I think I've figured him out, he takes me by surprise. Honestly, Tikki, it's very stressful." He paused again. "Don't tell him I said this, but I worry about sometimes."

Tikki rolled her eyes, but she didn't miss the tone of his voice. "What's bothering you?"

"This is the most time I've seen his father spend time with him." The black cat kwami glanced back at his ward."This is probably the second time I've seen him so happy. Honestly, I thought he'd get Nathalie to take care of him."

"And why is that a bad thing?"

"Well…I've been thinking," Plagg said thoughtfully, if not a little concerned, turning to face Tikki again.

On any other day, Tikki would've made a joke: Plagg, thinking? Nonsense! But she could tell he was being serious (another rare occurrence), now wasn't the time for jokes. She waited patiently.

"Just…Marionette's comments, when she was talking to Hawkmoth…"

"I've been thinking about that, too," Tikki sighed. "You don't think—" She didn't want to say it out loud. That would make it too real.

Plagg was quiet for a long time. "If it is," he finally said, looking back at Adrien again, Tikki following his gaze. "It would destroy him."

IDK, I feel bad for leaving you on such an odd note, without a plan to continue, because this is definitely the end of the story. But…I mean I guess it kind of reflects how I'm feeling right now. At the same time, I do like this ending. It's kind of…suspenseful, open-ended. Dramatic. Like I said, I don't know. At this point, I have no idea what's going on in my life. Or my writing, apparently.

If you'd like me to continue, I might. I can't say it's a guarantee, but if I get enough requests I'll think about where I could possibly take this. Again, there isn't a guarantee that I'll continue in this UA, but who knows. Further down the road, I might come back to it and pick up the storyline. See where it takes me.

Anyway, thank you all again for joining me! I don't think I've gotten such an enthusiastic response for one of my stories before. And it was a very nice, happy feeling. I really love this fandom, so keep it friends! You're all miraculous! Thank you so, so much for all the comments and favorites. They make me very happy.

So, with that, the story comes to an end. I hope you enjoyed! And thank you for being patient with me. Especially on the weeks where I was busy and couldn't post. (*cough* like this past week *cough*) Oh speaking of, I do apologize. It's just been crazy because the semester is coming to a close, and I've got a lot of big projects and essays that need to be finished, including other homework, exams, and work. I've basically been going non-stop and I just…couldn't write last week for various reasons. Needless to say, I'm glad I got the finale to you.

Bug out! ;)

Thank you for reading,
TheBrightestNight